Episode Details

Taste and See

Psalm 34, 03/07/2021, Remsen Bible Fellowship

Happy Siesta Nursing Home, 08/31/2022

Introduction:

In his poem, “Prayer”, the Anglican Poet Geroge Herbert gives some 28 descriptions of what prayer is. One of the most memorable of these descriptions is “the soul in paraphrase.” In turning to God in prayer, if we are open and honest with him, we are in a sense paraphrasing those things nearest and dearest to ourselves. We are communicating what is of deepest value to us. We are baring our souls before him. What does that say about your prayers?

The title of this Psalm tells us it’s setting. OF DAVID, WHEN HE CHANGED HIS BEHAVIOR BEFORE ABIMELECH, SO THAT HE DROVE HIM OUT, AND HE WENT AWAY. David wrote this while fleeing from Saul. In this time, he headed straight into the arms of Achish, the king of Gath. Which turned out to be a bad idea. The Philistines hated David, who had killed thousands of Philistines. And so he fears for his life, and changes his behavior in an attempt to preserve himself. But while Psalm 56, set at the same time, emphasizes the fear David experienced, and how he processed that fear, here in Psalm 34 we have a different focus. Psalm 34 is about tasting and seeing the goodness of God.

This psalm falls roughly into two parts, first David’s testimony to God’s goodness (1-10) and second, David’s teaching on the proper response to that goodness (11-22).

Title:

(skip this paragraph on 8/31/22) Before we dive into the meat of the text, though, we should say a couple of things about the title itself. You may remember, either from me just saying it, or from our study last week, that in 1 Samuel 21 the Philistine king is named Achish. But here he is referred to as Abimelech. Is this a discrepancy? No. Abimelech seems to have served as a title for the kings in this region of Palestine going clear back to the time of Genesis, similar to the term Pharaoh in Egypt or Ceasar in later Rome.

The second fact of note in the title is this phrase, “changed his behavior.” Some translations say “changed his countenance”, but a literal rendering into English might be something along the lines of “changed his taste.” That wouldn’t make any sense to us, hence the translators choice of words that match both the original meaning and story we are supposed to remember from 1 Samuel. But that phrase “changed his taste” will connect for us later in the story. Taste is an important part of this Psalm. David acted without taste, but God would nonetheless deliver him. To quote William MacDonald, “This episode was certainly not one of the more heroic or brilliant chapters in the psalmist’s checkered career, but he nevertheless looked back upon it as a dramatic deliverance by the Lord, and so he wrote this Psalm to celebrate that event.”

As we move through this Psalm I just want to walk through, stanza by stanza, allowing both David’s praise and his instruction to wash over us.

I will always bless the Lord! v1-3

I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! 

David opens this Psalm exulting, rejoicing in God. I will bless the Lord at all times, he says. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Should this not be the aspiration of every believer? David has just been through some rough circumstances, ones in which he has not always acted in the wisest or most godly fashion. And yet here is the impulse, I think, which is why God can say earlier in 1 Samuel that this is a man after his own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). David is not a man after God’s heart because he lacks sin. He abounds in sin! But his heart is a heart after God’s own because, though he often falls, and though